1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a storage system, and a management apparatus and method, for example, those that are suitable for use in a storage system in which plural host servers access a storage apparatus via a network.
2. Description of Related Art
Storage systems having configurations in which plural host servers access an integrated storage apparatus via a network are becoming widespread as data center architectures to enhance the utilization efficiency of storage apparatuses, which have been growling in scale, and reduce management costs.
In order to monitor the performance of, or to tune, the business operation systems in such a storage network environment, it is necessary to collect information on all the various kinds of hardware apparatuses and software that constitute the storage system, and grasp their mutual relationships and temporal changes.
This is because in a storage network environment, performance interference may occur between business operation systems at a shared part, such as a network device, or a storage apparatus, etc., which does not happen in architecture in which a host server and a storage apparatus are directly connected to each other and in which each business operation system is independently provided for each server.
In order to meet the above need, in conventional storage systems, agents are arranged in a storage system in association with respective performance monitoring target hardware apparatuses and software, and management software that collectively manages the performance status of the entire storage system is provided.
The agents each directly communicate with their respective monitoring targets and acquire, as performance information, performance values for the resources (performance information collection targets) in the performance monitoring targets. Here, a resource refers to a storage system component for which a certain metric value (performance value) can be obtained. Examples of resources include a port for a SAN switch included in a SAN, and cache memory or a logical volume in a storage apparatus. A metric value indicates an individual performance parameter for a system component, that is a candidate for performance monitoring. Examples of a metric value include a transfer rate for a port for a SAN switch, memory utilization of cache memory in a storage apparatus, and a data input/output rate for a logical volume in a storage apparatus.
The management software collects and stores the performance information acquired by the agents, monitors the resources based on the stored performance information and the threshold values set by a system administrator in advance for the respective resources, and when a performance value for a resource exceeds the threshold value set for the resource, it notifies the system administrator.
Although it is an example of a computer network, rather than a storage network, U.S. Pat. No. 6,505,248 discloses a method and system for monitoring the performance of a plurality of server apparatuses in a network environment.